Founded in 1965, Upward Bound, a school program, has been working towards bringing up the rates of post graduation schooling. Our school district participates in this program based out of our local Chadron State College. According to Kevin Coy Jr, the academic advisor/coordinator for Upward Bound; Upward Bound is “a federal funded program that serves students from disadvantaged households such as first gen and low income students”. Focusing on students less fortunate than others, bringing them the sense of someone believing in them and resources to use in order to accelerate.
To begin with, the first generation as Coy mentioned are students whose parent or parents did not finish a four-year college or university program. The next qualification is low-income households. The goal of the entire Upward Bound is to provide assistance at high school to help lead to a college. This program offers incentives like money rewards, lunch meetings, summer classes, and college visits. With the money rewards comes a monthly assignment that looks into possible colleges, personal goals, and FAFSA; these assignments are called sakais. Monthly the group meets in Kevin Coy’s classroom and talks through these pieces of work while having lunch. Doing the sakais offers more information about college applications and how to plan a future. At the end of the month the sakai and attendance at the lunch meetings are reviewed and up to $40 dollars is deposited into your account. Saving the money for a small college fund or paying for college applications with this money is another way this program can help you. Upward Bound is also said by Coy to be “like a distant family”.
To continue, every nine weeks there is a quarterly meeting that goes over the past few months. In this time you’re able to connect with the whole Upward Bound group from the district including Crawford, Alliance, and Chadron schools. Recently, for a quarterly meeting, in August they went to Black Hills, visited Mount Rushmore, went to the presidential wax museum in Keystone, then went to see hot air balloons. Each semester, a selected group goes on tours of different colleges. These tours can last days, typically spending the night at a hotel and touring at least two colleges. Additionally at the end of the school year a summer program is held. For the month of June students stay at the Chadron college dorms and attend classes. During this month a writing contest is held, if you win you get to go on a trip, this year is to New Mexico!
Joining Upward Bound is a great opportunity. Not only do they help you in high school, but it’s connected to another program called Trio. Trio is held in college, it cuts down prices of printing and tutoring as well as offering a calm environment and in some cases even counselors just for the students in Trio. Talk to Mr. Coy today in room 207 and find out more!
